Cassette tapes abandoned

The era of the cassette tape is formally over with the last major UK electronics retailer, Currys pulling them from their shelves. The move follows Woolworths and HMV which have already stopped selling them.

Currys have also said that this will be the last Christmas it will sell hi-fi systems with tape decks included. Portable cassette players have been with us for more than 40 years, after being introduced to Europe in 1963 by Philips.

Originally they were designed for dictation machines, but ended up being used for home recording and data storage. Their use was boosted by the introduction of the Sony Walkman in 1979.

According to the Sun, 83 million tapes were sold in the UK in 1989. Last year only 100,000 were sold.